First hackathon at MPI-M

21.08.2018
Science
Climate
Atmosphere

Credit:MPI-M

From 20 to 21 August 2018, scientists and programmers from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) and the German Climate Computing Centre (DKRZ) met for the first time for a joint hackathon. The words "hack" and "marathon" make up the name for this special type of event. For 24 hours and free of any daily routine, the participants dealt with methods and techniques for the analysis of global, cloud-resolving simulations within the project DYAMOND (Dynamics of the Atmospheric general circulation Modeled On Non-hydrostatic Dynamics). This project provides the framework for the first comparison of new high-resolution atmospheric circulation models that better represent heat transport in the atmosphere and the underlying laws of fluid dynamics than conventional models. DYAMOND is part of the new strategic ICON project Sapphire, whose goal is to advance the representation of the coupled climate system for higher resolutions, so that e.g. convective storms in the tropics and mesoscale ocean eddies in the extratropics can be explicitly represented.

A special challenge running these models are the high data rates and the massive data volume, which often makes the analysis of such simulations difficult. The participants of the hackathon will address this very problem. Therefore, they form teams, formulate analysis goals and "hack" the best tools and methods to achieve them. They will test their ideas with four different high-resolution atmospheric models, including ICON-A, the atmospheric model version of the new ICON Earth system model.

Which methods and tools are really helpful? How easy are they to use? What does this mean for the computer infrastructure? How can and must it be improved in order to make the best possible use of the new scientific possibilities of high-resolution models? By bringing together different expertises, the exchange of ideas and knowledge in a creative environment, the hackathon provides the ideal framework for finding initial answers to these questions and creating a momentum that will increasingly address this complex topic together in the future.